


Assist

by dreamwriteremmy (ehryniewi)



Series: The Common House Tales [60]
Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Allergies, Drug Addiction, Drug Use, F/M, Food Issues, Hurt/Comfort, Medical Inaccuracies, Medical Procedures, Mental Anguish, Mental Health Issues, Non-Consensual Drug Use
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-11
Updated: 2015-05-11
Packaged: 2018-03-30 00:18:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 821
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3916084
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ehryniewi/pseuds/dreamwriteremmy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Abby helps Vanessa with something she promised.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Assist

Abby looks at Kevin curled up in Vanessa's lap and hums. He is the spitting image of Cecil if you took away all the Strex modifications. Vanessa has her hand in his hair. And she looks vaguely like Carlos. Vanessa smiles, "Hi Abby. You want to help us?"

She nods and Vanessa gently shakes Kevin awake. He jerks away when he notices the needle in Abby's hand. "No needles."

Abby sighs. "He's scared of needles like Cecil?"

Vanessa's mouth twitches, "Not exactly... Kevin, can Abby see your arms?"

Abby blinks when Kevin removes the button up he's wearing. His arms are covered in track marks and other very obvious signs of damaged veins.

She frowns. "Honey, what happened?"

He squawks and buries his head under Vanessa's cardigan and Vanessa sighs, trailing her hand down his back, murmuring assurances, "Ssshh. It's okay, sweetie. It's okay. Abby's not upset at you."

Vanessa continues, "The first rounds of Strex drugs were injections, Abby. The pill form they were giving Night Vale is very new. Cecil didn't make any faces at it."

Abby sighs, "Probably because he assumed it was Kevin's choice. Cec was an addict when he was younger. His tattoos cover most of the damage. He did those on purpose to hide them when he outgrew the habit."

"Can you still help us?"

"I can't do this without needles, but we'll break it into smaller blocks. I'm sorry, I cant make this easier for you, Kevin."

Kevin sniffles and turns to her. "Can we wait?"

She sighs, "not really. Do you need me to put you down?"

Kevin looks hopeful. "Please? I dont want to be awake. They hurt."

She smiles. "Okay. I need to touch you to scan how much you need."

Shes a little surprised that Kevin's sedation threshold is a lot lower than Cecil's. She lets one of her tentacles tap his lips and Kevin suckles it immediately. She wonders a little if they took him from his mother too early with his neediness.

Vanessa's fingers continue to card through his hair as she murmurs softly. When he goes limp, Abby extracts the tentacle and begins trying to find good injection points among the damage. She starts with the most common allergens first. The first three (nuts, wheat, fish) do nothing the fourth sets off a near immediate reaction. As she treats the reaction, Vanessa looks at her. "What was that one?"

"Buckwheat."

"He's going to be upset. That's his favorite honey stick."

"Better we catch it now than later."

Vanessa nods and continues carding her fingers through his hair. Abby does a couple more shots.

When she finishes, she sighs, "He's definitely allergic to the buckwheat family at least. We'll do some more tests tomorrow. I want his immune system to recover a bit."

Vanessa flips open the honey stick bottle and removes ten deep brown honey sticks. "These are the buckwheat ones."

Abby takes them, then gently shakes Kevin awake.

"Honey, we need to talk."

Kevin blinks bleary-eyed at her, and scratches his arm. Vanessa swats his hand. "Don't scratch."

He whimpers, "But it itches, Nessa."

"I know it itches, Kev. It's an allergic reaction. If you stop scratching I can put calamine on it in a little bit."

Abby sighs, "We discovered one severe allergy family so far, Kevin. You're allergic to buckwheat."

Kevin blinks and whimpers, "I've never been allergic to that before... It's my favorite."

Vanessa nods, "I know, sweetie, but your reaction got a lot worse after the test, so we're going to avoid feeding you that one from now on. I don't want to accidentally kill you."

Kevin sighs. And Abby frowns at the cloud that settles over Kevin's usually sunshiny disposition.

He curls up in Vanessa's lap tucking his head back under her cardigan and Vanessa sighs, carding her fingertips through Kevin's hair under the sweater. "I'm sorry, Abby."

Abby shakes her head. "It's fine. He's well within his rights to be upset. I'm actually surprised, he's... Quiet. You should have seen Cecil when he was told he shouldn't eat wheat. He threw the world's biggest temper tantrum." 

Vanessa chuckles, "I can definitely see that."

She continues carding her fingers through Kevin's hair. "He's not going to let me move. Can you... grab me that camo totebag on the shelf?" 

Abby goes and grabs the bag Vanessa's pointing at and Vanessa takes it from her, removing the bottle of calamine and coating the hives along Kevin's arms.

Abby's wizpod chimes and she glances at it. "I have to go help my daughter... Do you need anything?"

Vanessa glances down at Kevin. "Can you have one of the residents in the kitchen send me up a smoothie or a shake? I'm not going to be able to eat much solid when he's like this."

She nods. "Sure thing. If you need anything, you know how to contact me."

Vanessa nods. "Yeah. Thanks Abby."


End file.
